My Mother, the Warrior

"The Supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."

"Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak."

~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War


 My first inkling that my mother wasn't nearly as dumb as I thought she was came later than sooner, which lets you know just how dumb I am. I should have know she wasn't dumb when she out maneuvered me in every covert operation I ever tried to do. I was a good teenager because frankly... I knew I couldn't get away with anything. My mother is the brains behind my parent's partnership and my father does the heavy lifting. My mother parented by gathering Intel and then turning it over to the FBI
 ( Father Believing to be In charge). But...it wasn't until I had my first child that I realized she knew everything and I knew nothing...

It seems silly now that I had thought my mother weak, I thought because she would not engage my father in arguing that she was not strong. I remember thinking, as a teenager while he verbally assailed my mother in an argument that I felt I could have easily won ..."Fight back...Mom!"  This underestimate of my mother's tactics was my undoing. I did not, nor did my father realize that my mother had already won the battle. We did not understand she had out maneuvered him and he was just poorly negotiating his defeat. I am my father's daughter and I am proud of him...and while my father has actually been to war, it is my mother who could have written The Art of War. She gathers her Intel while never divulging her source. Her interrogation methods put our entire Homeland Security to shame and she always, always chose her battles carefully.

All of this...I realized after the birth of my first child. The feeling of holding your child in your arms and knowing that you are inadequate for the task...is a humbling moment. The deceptive weight of a new born in your arms...how could something so small...weigh so heavy on your being? The realization in that moment that my mother took care for me, kept me safe, nurtured me, prayed for me and all the while she battled dark forces including those parts of my worst nature. She did all of this faithfully with God's help...She fought the good fight! She gave me the example that I tried to follow but often...I wished I had read her copy of The Art of War.

 Happy Mother's Day, Mom!




2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.